Commitment to Community: Advocate Health’s Role as an Innovative National Rural Health Leader

Rural America is in crisis when it comes to health care. Twenty percent of the country’s population live in rural areas. Hundreds of hospitals have closed and hundreds more are at risk of closure. Recent legislative actions threaten to reduce the revenues available to rural hospitals, adding another layer of challenges and complexity for industry leaders trying to preserve access to care close to home for people who live in smaller communities.

Amid these challenges, Advocate Health has made a commitment to “rewire” health care – to build the country’s leading model for access to care. This type of transformation requires improving access for all people, including those who live in rural America, where ongoing access issues continue to impede their ability to live their healthiest lives.

In recent months, Advocate Health has invested in new infrastructures to make emergency care readily available, with demand for services exceeding projections. It’s using its industry-leading virtual care capabilities to provide everything from primary care in the home to remote, virtual critical care monitoring in small town ICUs. With some of the most highly trained physicians, surgeons and academic researchers anywhere on staff, Advocate Health has equipped each of its hospitals with the capabilities necessary to bring renowned expertise in any number of specialties into any local hospital where it is needed.

Its mission: to deliver safe, high-quality and patient-centered care for all. Its goal goes beyond just treating illness, but also helping keep people well and out of the hospital, and building stronger, healthier and more vibrant rural communities.

With Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as its academic core, Advocate Health is also changing the game in advancing medical trials, making them available across the entirety of its footprint, ensuring better qualitative results. It’s also allowing patients in rural areas to take part, where previously they may not have been afforded that opportunity.

The health system’s work on providing excellent care in rural areas is laying a strong foundation for even more substantial commitments, in concert with strategic private partnerships and critical legislative assistance from federal and state officials. Advocate Health and its leaders believe every patient – no matter where they live – should have access to the care and resources they need to thrive.